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In tweets Thursday morning, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump dismissed several allegations of sexual assault made against him this week. In reports published Wednesday, four women accused Trump of making unwanted sexual advances on them. The accusations came days after a salacious leaked “Access Hollywood” tape showed Trump bragging in 2005 that his celebrity status allowed him to grope women. The allegations, made by Jessica Leeds and Rachel Crooks in The New York Times, Natasha Stoynoff in People, and Mindy McGillivray in The Palm Beach Post, came after Trump denied ever making unwanted advances when asked during Sunday night’s presidential debate. “The phoney story in the failing @nytimes is a TOTAL FABRICATION,” Trump said in one tweet. “Written by same people as last discredited story on woman. WATCH!” Trump was most likely referring to a May story in The Times examining his interactions with women in … [Read more...] about Trump addresses sexual-misconduct allegations: ‘The phony story’ is ‘a TOTAL FABRICATION’

Following its recent update that allows you to speed up, slow down, or reverse your videos, Snapchat has added some new updates to enhance your disappearing-picture experience. Starting Thursday night, Snapchat users will be able to immediately chat with a friend while viewing their latest “Story” collection of videos and photos. The new Story Replies features lets you swipe up and begin a chat with the friend without having to leave the clip. Your friend will then receive an alert to the conversation, as well as the Snap you’re talking about. Here’s what it looks like: Additionally, the app now allows you to use its lenses with your rear-facing camera. To activate, all you need to do is push and hold a face. … [Read more...] about You can now reply to your friends on Snapchat without leaving a Story

The dynamics of family, the connections that do and do not bind people together, have long been a preoccupation for filmmaker Noah Baumbach. After exploring them in films such as The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding, While We’re Young and Mistress America, Baumbach pushes further into the unknown territories of someone else’s family in his latest, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected). And making the movie brought together an unusual family of its own. The project marks the third collaboration between Baumbach and leading man Ben Stiller, who co-stars with Adam Sandler. Stiller and Sandler have known each other for many years and had long looked for a project they could do together. The Meyerowitz Stories began after a few conversations among the three men, in which it was decided that the actors should play brothers and that there should be a physical fight between them. Baumbach went off and wrote the script, adding in additional ideas. Read more: Have … [Read more...] about Noah Baumbach gets familial with Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller on The Meyerowitz Stories

U.S. president Donald Trump on Saturday called out Obama administration officials for not taking stronger actions against Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, contradicting his past statements and suggesting without proof that they were trying to help Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. His tweets came after the Washington Post revealed Friday that the Obama White House had received reports as early as August 2016 regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s direct involvement in the cyber campaign with instructions to defeat or damage Clinton and help to elect Trump, according to “sourcing deep inside the Russian government.” The Obama administration would not publicly say Russia was attempting to interfere with the election until Oct. 7, and the news of Putin’s attempts to aid Trump would not surface until after the election. Trump has long disputed that the Russians interfered with the election, calling it “all a big Dem … [Read more...] about Trump lashes out at Obama over latest report on Russian election meddling

SAN JUAN DEL RIO, MEXICO—Looming above a Canadian auto-parts plant, keeping watch over workers, is a painting of the Virgin Mary. This same plant plans a celebration of its latest expansion with a party featuring a mariachi band. It’s far from Windsor. It’s close to Mexico City. The story of the Exo-s factory is the story of NAFTA: manufacturing booming in Mexico, while surviving in the north; supply chains that are internationally interconnected and extra-efficient; and a Mexican workforce seeing the most modest gains and longing for more. Canadian auto-parts companies have more than 120 plants and 43,000 employees in Mexico, and this Quebec-based plastics-maker is among them. It has grown a bit in Canada, but exploded here: when it opens a new warehouse on its property, its Mexican workforce will have nearly tripled to 300. While workers hammer and weld together the new warehouse frame, the plant manager explains why Mexico was a must. … [Read more...] about The story of NAFTA, as told from a Canadian auto-parts plant in Mexico

WASHINGTON—In the morning, Donald Trump echoed the vocabulary of white supremacists. In the afternoon, he endorsed a fictional war crime against Muslims. Trump’s allies have urged him to talk about jobs and tax reform. Instead, the president of the United States has decided to vigorously embrace the racial and religious animus that was central to his campaign success but has alienated and alarmed much of the country and the world. His words in 2016 were extraordinary for a major-party candidate, and his words on Thursday were doubly shocking from a president. He triggered the latest round of outrage, moreover, as he was already six days into a self-created crisis over his beliefs about race. “The president has options here,” Kevin Madden, former top spokesperson for Republican candidate Mitt Romney, said in an email. “One option is to allow his administration to become consumed by these controversies, the other is to refocus the message on the economic … [Read more...] about Trump cites fake story to endorse racist mass murder as anti-terror tactic

The murder of the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-un has put the often fantastical stories of political poisonings back in the news, in dramatic fashion. The Victim: Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The Poison: VX nerve agent. Two women allegedly had the compounds of the poison on their hands and rubbed Kim’s face as he walked through the Kuala Lumpur international airport on Feb. 13. The Suspects: North Korea’s reclusive regime. They have denied involvement. The two women, one from Indonesia and one from Vietnam, along with a 46-year-old North Korean man, are being held in Malaysia. … [Read more...] about Killing of Kim Jong-un’s brother latest in a poisonous history

There are roles to be filled in American life. There is the Pop Star of the moment (Taylor Swift), the Leading Man of the moment (I vote for Chris Pratt), the Vamp of the moment (is it still Kim Kardashian?), the America’s Sweetheart of the moment (either Adele or Jennifer Lawrence), the Bad Boy of the moment (Martin Shkreli), the Redemption Story of the moment (Justin Bieber?), the Politician of the moment (Donald Trump), and the Disgrace of the moment (also Donald Trump). These are important positions, and while they may change often, they are important avatars of the American experience. Like the fact-checkers assigned to Donald Trump, somebody has to do it. Well, meet your newest crazy diva wide receiver, Odell Beckham Jr. of the New York Giants. He assumes the mantle from Dallas’s Dez Bryant, who inherited it from Terrell Owens, who followed Chad Johnson, who tried to supplant Randy Moss. DeSean Jackson was in there for a bit, too. It’s a prestigious position, to … [Read more...] about Odell Beckham Jr. latest in long line of NFL’s crazy diva wide receivers: Arthur

OTTAWA There has been no shortage of ways in which Canada’s war veterans have been stripped of their dignity, denied their rights or ignored by their government. But Calgary West MP Rob Anders found another way to demean men and women who put their lives on the line for this country. He slept through part of a Halifax committee hearing — “almost hitting his head on the table” as he lapsed into dreamland, according to one witness — where two veterans trying to help homeless vets were testifying. First, he denied he dozed, lashing out the offended Afghan war veterans, calling them “NDP hacks” and supporters of Vladmir Putin. Then, under pressure, he tossed an apology through the Parliamentary Press Gallery on a Friday night. Then he finally and grudgingly rose in the House of Commons Tuesday to apologize, not for snoozing his way through his job, but for the comments he made when his behaviour was questioned. The veterans, David MacLeod and Jim … [Read more...] about Tim Harper: Rob Anders the latest injustice for Canadian veterans

U.S. President Donald Trump gave a news conference for the ages at the White House on Thursday. Trump was wild. He was hostile. He aired his grievances in a sprawling hour-and-a-half exchange with reporters that was unlike anything Americans have seen since his rollicking election campaign ended a little over three months ago. Read the latest news on U.S. President Donald Trump This, the wild spectacle of a presidential news conference run off the rails — one originally billed as a chance for Trump to introduce his new pick for labour secretary — is what the Star chose as its front page story on Friday. “Tomorrow, they will say, ‘Donald Trump rants and raves at the press,’” Trump said at one point, accurately. … [Read more...] about The 5 other front page stories the Star could run after Trump’s wild presser